


Counting Stars Against the Black

by theothersideoftheveil



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-06
Packaged: 2017-12-25 17:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theothersideoftheveil/pseuds/theothersideoftheveil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: The night James and Lily Potter died, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black confronted Peter Pettigrew only to be on the receiving end of a debilitating curse. Now 12 years later, they've both been brought to Hogwarts with one chance to finally break the curse, capture Peter, and be together once more. Fixing things is somewhat complicated by the meddling of the Golden Trio who are intrigued by the strangers. (Fusion with the film Ladyhawke, Alternate PoA)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This story follows canon up through Chamber of Secrets with this "replacing" Prisoner of Azkaban. Sirius never went to prison. He was never an animagus and Remus was never a werewolf. Everything else from canon applies with a few shortcuts here and there.

The years were beginning to weigh on Remus Lupin. A war had come and gone and another was well on its way. He felt as though he would always only be of limited use. It was his curse and his cross to bear. The dog at his feet whined. Well, perhaps not his alone.

  
“At least we have the compartment to ourselves,” Remus mused as the train rolled along. He pet Padfoot’s head and the dog jumped up on the seat beside him. He was big enough to take up the whole rest of the seat. He was going to frighten the children, no doubt, looking so much like the Grim. “You’re restless. I can tell.”

 

 

Padfoot whined again and licked Remus’s cheek. It had been a long time since they had been anywhere besides Remus’s cottage in the country. Remus paid the few bills they had with odd jobs picked up in town, anything that didn’t require night hours. They got on well enough, but they’d grown used to being just the two of them with a massive garden to keep them occupied. The train to Hogwarts was somewhat less comfortable especially for an energetic dog.

 

“It’s going to be over soon,” Remus said softly pressing a kiss to the top of Padfoot’s head. “We’ll find the answer and we’ll find Peter and all of this will be over.” Padfoot barked, but fell silent when the compartment door opened.

  
“Oh, we’re quite sorry,” A young girl with bushy hair stood in the doorway. Remus didn’t recognize her, but the boy beside her with the shock of red hair was clearly a Weasley. From the age, he’d guess it was the youngest boy, Ron. And he recognized the other boy instantly. Harry. How they’d kept their distance. “Everything else is full up.”

 

Remus forced his eyes away from Harry. Padfoot had perked up at the sight of him and jumped to his feet. Remus pulled back on his lead bringing him down to the floor at his feet.

  
“That’s fine. Please. He’s friendly. Aren’t you, Pads?”

 

The kids filed in. The girl, a third year if Remus’s count of Harry’s years was right, sat down beside him while Harry sat across from him. Padfoot immediately jumped up on him.

 

“Down, Pads,” He tugged him down. “I’m terribly sorry, Harry. He’s a bit excitable, but I assure you that he’s harmless.”

 

“‘S alright,” Harry laughed and patted Padfoot’s head which made the dog far too smug by Remus’s estimation.

 

“How’d you know his name?” Ron asked with a frown.

 

“Well, forgive me, but Harry Potter is rather famous,” Remus offered with a sheepish smile.

 

“I’m Hermione Granger,” The girl chimed in. “And that’s Ronald Weasley,” She glared at Ron clearly thinking he should apologize for being rude. The boy was oblivious to that fact.

 

“Remus Lupin. I’ll be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. And this,” He stroked the dog’s head. “Is Padfoot. He’ll be keeping me company I suppose.”

 

They fell into amiable conversation. Remus dozed off at some point and the children talked among themselves as Padfoot stared up at Harry who occasionally reached out to pet him. They arrived at Hogwarts just as dusk was settling in.

 

“We’ll see you at the Welcome Feast, sir,” Hermione said as they gathered their things.

 

“Oh, I actually may be caught up with unpacking, but I will see you tomorrow at classes.”

 

“Are you alright?” Harry chimed in glancing back at Remus. “You don’t look well, sir.”

 

“I’ll be fine. Just the journey. Come, Pads.”

 

Dumbledore had already given Remus directions to his rooms. He was hurrying there at a brisk pace as he felt the sun setting outside. He only barely got into his room when the change began to overtake him. He looked at Padfoot who was already beginning to look more human. Remus stumbled to the ground looking at Pads.

 

Remus’s fingers were extending into sharp claws and his mouth was widening as his teeth sharpened. His eyes did their best to focus on Padfoot and for one brief moment he saw the man he loved before he was overtaken by the rest of his change. Soon there was no more Remus, just a large tawny wolf that howled as the pain of the transformation ebbed off.

* * *

“Who’s that?” Harry asked motioning toward the head table. A man with long black hair had come in after introductions were made. Dumbledore had offered him a seat at the head table, but had said no more on the subject.

 

“It looks like Sirius Black, but that can’t be,” Hermione said scrunching up her nose. “He’s a renowned recluse. He was a great auror once and then they say he just disappeared. Some think he went mad.”

 

“How do you know everything about everyone?” Ron said gaping at her before shoveling some more food in his mouth. She rolled her eyes. “He’s staring at Harry. If he is mad, that’s a bit creepy.”

 

“I think...Well, from what I’ve read about the War, I think he knew your dad, Harry,” Hermione admitted. “Your dad was an auror too.”

 

Harry swallowed hard, “Well, he can’t be too close to him if I’ve never met him or seen him,” He shrugged and focused on eating.

* * *

 

Dumbledore turned to Sirius, “I didn’t think you’d appreciate an introduction, though I’m sure your presence will be known here sooner or later.”

 

Sirius’s jaw tightened as he stabbed at a few vegetables on his plate, “Perhaps this was a bad idea. Sooner or later, someone will notice that I’m never seen before dinner and that Remus is never seen before breakfast.”

 

“Stranger things have happened,” Dumbledore’s eye twinkled and Sirius could only imagine the sort of things the old wizard had seen. “You’re safe here. I would not have brought either of you here if you were not.”

 

Sirius nodded. “I should get back. I’ll take a plate of food if that’s alright. Moony will be hungry.”

 

He piled a plate with food and walked out of the Great Hall to a few murmurings that he mostly ignored. He was around people so infrequently these days he was surprised that he remembered how he was meant to behave. Remus would be proud.

 

When Sirius got back to their rooms, Remus was laying in the sitting room by the fire. He perked up at the sight of Sirius.

  
“Brought dinner,” He sat the plate down in front of the wolf, petting his head. Moony licked his other hand in thanks and began cleaning the plate. “I hated being there. It feels wrong being in this bloody school without James here. Without you here.”

  
Moony looked up at him. Sirius had learned how to see things in the wolf’s eyes. He could see the sadness there, all too human emotions staring back him.

  
“We find Peter,” Sirius said softly repeating what Remus had said earlier. “We make him fix this and then he pays for what he did.”

 

Moony whined. It sounded so easy, but Peter could be anywhere.

 

“He looks just like James,” Sirius said moving over to the bed and taking his wand out. It wasn’t quite large enough for Sirius and the wolf. He wasn’t about to leave Remus on the floor for the entire night, animal or not. Besides they’d be parted all day while Remus was teaching. He couldn’t very well take a dog to class with him. “I want to tell him who I am. Who we are, but...We can’t. Not until the curse is broken. I can’t be a very good godfather when I’m not even a person during the day.”

 

They’d struggled for years over whether to speak to Harry. Dumbledore insisted he go to his muggle relatives, but once he’d gone to school the discussion had been revisited albeit in a very disjointed way with each speaking when they could. There was never a good time and now at least they could be friendly with him.

 

“Everyone stared at me in the Hall. They’re going to notice soon enough,” He said flopping down on the bed. Moony finished eating and went over to the bed jumping up beside Sirius. He settled down beside him and Sirius buried his fingers in his fur scratching his flank. “I’m starting to forget.”

 

Moony looked at him, but didn’t make any noise of argument. He butted his head against Sirius’s jaw nuzzling him gently.

 

“Your voice, the way it sounds to human ears,” He pet Moony’s head. “The way you look to human eyes before you’ve started changing. The way it felt to hold you,” Moony whined. “I’ll do this forever if I have to, but I really, really don’t want to.”

 

Neither of them did. It was taxing to say the least, physically and mentally. Their bodies weren’t meant to be forced into these changes. Remus’s form seemed to take a much greater toll on him. It was taking longer for him to recover in the evenings after he changed and he seemed so much weaker by day. It scared Sirius. He scratched his ears.

 

“Plus it’ll be nice to sleep past dawn,” The pain of his own transformation would wake him by then and then it would be Remus’s turn to be human. “I still don’t know how Peter managed this.”

 

It was the night James and Lily died that it all began. Sirius and Peter had swapped out the role of Secret Keeper thinking that Peter would be a less likely candidate and therefore less likely to be picked on by Death Eaters and the Dark Lord. Little did they realize just how deeply lost their friend was.

 

They cornered him in an alley in a rundown bit of London, a part of town Sirius didn’t even think Peter knew existed. He pleaded for ten minutes before turning his wand on his friends. Why he chose this particularly curse, intricate though it was, still alluded the pair of them, but it had taken effect immediately. Remus’s body had twisted into the form of the wolf. Sirius had gaped at Peter who used that time to turn into a rat and run. They hadn’t known their friend was an animagus. They had attempted to become them together, but thought they had all failed.

 

Sirius had spent that entire first night thinking he would never see Remus again. They were on their way to meet Dumbledore when dawn broke and suddenly their roles were reversed. Sirius was a large black dog, apt given his name, and Remus himself once more.

 

Finding out what curse had done this was easy enough. It only took a handful of weeks, weeks during which they missed James and Lily’s funerals, and missed saying goodbye to Harry. Breaking the curse would be impossible until they found Peter and unless they found Peter on just the right day, there would be no hope.

 

“I love you, Remus. I always will,” Sirius said softly nuzzling against the wolf. He had to hold on to hope that being at Hogwarts would give them more resources for finding Peter. “Class tomorrow. Best rest.”

  
Sirius fell asleep with the weight of the wolf draped across him. He’d grown used to it. It was comforting,in fact. He slept well enough, but dreaded the dawn.


	2. Chapter 2

“These essays are too bloody long,” Sirius groused reclining on the bed with a stack of parchments in his lap and quill in his right hand. Moony was looking over his shoulder and occasionally making displeased noises either when Sirius was being too easy or too hard on a student. Technically they were both teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, Remus teaching the class while Sirius graded assignments. “You had to assign them each a bloody book to write, didn’t you?”

 

Moony scoffed and jumped off the bed stretching. He had cabin fever. He might still be a human trapped in a wolf’s body, but there was still a desire to run and jump and explore and there wasn’t much space for any of that in their rooms. Sirius sighed and put the papers aside.

 

“Let’s go for a walk. It’s after curfew for the students. No one will see you,” Sirius knew that was probably a stretch, but if they could get out through one of the back passages, their chances of being seen were slim at best.

 

Moony huffed. It was a risk, probably one they shouldn’t take. The Ministry kept a firm grip on cursed individuals. They didn’t like cases as severe as Remus and Sirius’s to be general knowledge. They’d find themselves locked up and probably not even together. Dumbledore and the faculty were the only ones who knew  the whole truth outside of Order of the Phoenix members who had been told as the war waned. It would be dangerous for the children to know who was really teaching their class.

 

“Come on. We won’t be able to once it gets a bit colder. Just a quick walk down to the lake.” Sirius was already standing up and reaching for his coat. Moony sat down and seemed unlikely to go anywhere with him. Sirius frowned. “Well, I’m going. I’ve been cooped up all day. I need fresh air too.”

  
He strode over to the door and waited, “Coming?”

 

Moony huffed again, but followed him. He moved quickly, but cautiously through the halls, relieved when they reached the grounds. He broke into a run and Sirius had to jog to catch up to him. He laughed as he ran after Moony. It was nice to be out of the room and to be together such that they were.

* * *

Ron ran into the common room hurrying over to Hermione and Harry where they sat on one of the sofas.

 

“You’ll never guess what I saw!” His voice was full of excitement, but his tone hushed. The two previous years had taught the three young Gryffindors much about keeping quiet when something was happening.

 

“This isn’t going to be about Percy and Penelope Clearwater again, is it? Because, honestly Ronald, I don’t care who your brother is snogging or how unusual you find it,” Hermione said not looking up from her Charms textbook.

 

“No, Hermione. It was Sirius Black,” That perked up both Harry and Hermione’s interest Black was rarely seen beyond the occasional appearance at dinner over the past few weeks and even those grew fewer and farther between. Dobby had said that Black preferred to eat in the kitchens. “And he was with a bloody gigantic wolf!”

 

“A wolf?” Harry looked at him incredulously. “No one could just be hiding a wolf on the grounds.”

 

“Well, he was out in the courtyard,” Ron admitted. “But they’d definitely just come from the hall, the pair of them did. Something isn’t right about Black and if he’s keeping a wolf...”

 

“Dumbledore wouldn’t invite a madman with a wolf to live at the castle,” Harry countered.

 

“I dunno, mate. He let Quirrell teach and Lockhart. His track record isn’t that good.”

 

“Well, Black’s not a teacher...”

 

Hermione sat up a little straighter closing her book, “There is something. Come on. We’ll need your cloak.”

* * *

It was cool down by the lake. Sirius almost regretted not grabbing his cloak before hurrying off for the outdoors. They were moving quickly through fall and soon it would be winter. And soon after that it would be May. Sirius sighed. He wasn’t sure they’d ever be ready for it to be May.

 

“If we don’t get what we need here,” He said reclining beside the lake while Remus continued to use up some of his excess energy. “We’ll travel again. It’s easy enough to do at least by day. There’s still that rumor about dragon’s blood. The Weasleys have a boy that works with dragons in Romania, he could help us.”

 

Remus whined and gave Sirius a look that seemed all too human. The man nodded.

 

“I know, no more false hope. No more looking for things that won’t fix us,” He sighed and laid back properly staring at the stars. “It’s beautiful here. It does feel a little bit like home even without James. You think we can stay? I mean after...whether it works or doesn’t work.”

 

The wolf came over to Sirius and licked his cheek before nuzzling his jaw. He laid down beside Sirius resting his head on his shoulder. Sirius adjusted his left hand so that he could pet him.

 

“Dumbledore may have a lead on Peter. There’ve been some break ins in Harry’s neighborhood back in Little Whinging. He’s worried Peter might be having a go at Harry or looking for something of James’s,” Sirius didn’t know what could be going through Peter’s mind, but whether it was him or not, someone doing illicit things so close to where Harry spent his summer’s was troubling. “I’m leaving the day after tomorrow to check it out.”

 

Remus didn’t much like that idea looking away. They were separated so little these days, but he knew that Sirius could easily travel by day and night on his own. A wolf in Little Whinging would be a problem.

 

“You’ll have teaching to distract you not to mention the grading which you’ll need to fit in,” He kissed the top of the wolf’s head. “It shouldn’t take long and it feels sort of good to pretend I’m an auror again.”

 

The wolf nodded his head and curled up beside him. He only hoped if it was Peter that their former friend wouldn’t hurt Sirius. Remus couldn’t bear that thought.

* * *

Whatever Hermione had to tell Ron and Harry, it had to be important for her to suggest they sneak out after curfew. She had learned in two years the value of breaking the occasional rule, but usually the stakes had to be much higher than taking the boys down to the Quidditch trophies to look at old pictures.

 

“It’s that one, there,” She said pointing to a photo in the corner, half obscured by a trophy. If they twisted their necks at just the right angle they could make it out.

 

“‘Mione,” Ron said not caring about the glare he got for the nickname. “Er, why are we looking at a photo of blokes our parents’ age?”

 

“Because, Ron, they’re not just anyone. The one in the middle laughing is Sirius Black. The one to the right of him is Professor Lupin and the one on the left is...”

 

“My dad,” Harry filled in softly. He shook his head. “So what? They were the same age. Black and my dad were both aurors. They must have gone to school together.”

 

“Harry, I think they were friends. It’s probably why Professor Lupin really recognized you on the train.”

 

“So what? My mum and dad had friends who never bothered to see me,” He shrugged trying to play it off. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

 

“I suppose it doesn’t,” Hermione conceded, but she licked her lips all the same. “But have either of you ever seen Lupin and Black together? Have you ever seen them talk? They were clearly good friends. I’ve found other pictures of them together, but...”

 

“Bloody hell,” Ron declared, though it was more with put upon resignation than anger. “This is going to turn into last year, isn’t it? Or first year? Black’s probably some mass murdering psychopath or Lupin is and we’re going to end up fighting something that could kill us.”

  
Harry smiled a little, “With our luck? Yes.”

* * *

Morning came all too early the next day. The papers hadn’t been finished, but Remus could take them to his office over breakfast and finish the last few off. Dumbledore had been generous in giving the pair of them work not to mention room and board. The last thing Remus planned to do was shirk his responsibilities as a teacher.

 

It had been a good morning. They’d nearly been able to touch one another’s hands as they changed into their respective forms. Nearly doing things used to be heartbreaking, but now it was a little sliver of something to hold onto.

 

Remus marked off a few points from one of the essays passing Sirius a bit of food from his plate and stroking his head intermittently.

 

“You don’t have to spend every day in my office,” Remus reminded him. “You could run about the grounds and show off for the kids like I know you enjoy.”

 

Sirius barked, but shifted closer.

 

“I’m not in danger, Sirius,” He rarely called him Sirius when he was in dog form. It was always Padfoot, but this seemed heavy enough to require use of his name. “I know you sense something. Moony feels it too, but I think its just old paranoia. Being parted won’t kill us.”

 

The dog pressed his head into Remus’s hand. He’d be leaving for a few days anyhow, he’d just as leave be close. He’d be gone soon to check on things near Harry’s relatives’ place. He’d take what he could get in the meantime.

  
There was a light knock on the door, “Come in,” Remus called, picking up another sausage and feeding it to Sirius. Harry walked into the room and Padfoot immediately ran to his side, jumping up on him. “Pads!”

 

“It’s alright,” Harry laughed and pet the dog. “He’s a nice dog,” He looked over at Remus turning a little more somber. “I...I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“Of course, Harry, what can I do for you?”

 

“It’s about my mum and dad. You knew them.”

 

Remus hesitated. He could lie, but surely Harry had gotten this information from somewhere reliable. He nodded slowly, “Yes, we did.”

 

“We?”

 

“We were classmates. Myself, Snape, Sirius Black,” He tried to cover. “Your father and mother. We all knew one another, but I’m afraid it was a very long time ago, though I miss their kindness greatly.”

 

“My aunt and uncle,” Harry looked away. “They told me that my dad was a drunk and a layabout and I’ve never believed it even before Hogwarts, but it wasn’t always easy. I always figured that they had no friends. It would explain why I never saw any of them.”

 

“Harry...”

 

“No, it’s not something you were required to do or anything. Just...Maybe you can tell me about them sometime.”

  
“I’d be honored,” Remus said honestly, though he knew talking about James and Lily meant talking about Sirius. It would open them up to all sorts of complications. Harry nodded.

 

“I better get to breakfast.”

  
“Indeed, we’ll talk soon.” Remus didn’t know what he could possibly say. He looked at Pads, but he knew Sirius felt the same way. This curse had taken much from them and Harry had been part of that.


End file.
